Blogs

Larry Hodges' Blog and Tip of the Week will normally go up on Mondays by 2:00 PM USA Eastern time. Larry is a member of the U.S. Table Tennis Hall of Fame, a USATT Certified National Coach, a professional coach at the Maryland Table Tennis Center (USA), and author of ten books and over 2100 articles on table tennis, plus over 1900 blogs and over 600 tips. Here is his bio. (Larry was awarded the USATT Lifetime Achievement Award in July, 2018.)

Make sure to order your copy of Larry's best-selling book, Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers!
Finally, a tactics book on this most tactical of sports!!!

Also out - Table Tennis TipsMore Table Tennis Tips, Still More Table Tennis Tips, and Yet Still More Table Tennis Tips, which cover, in logical progression, his Tips of the Week from 2011-2023, with 150 Tips in each!

Or, for a combination of Tales of our sport and Technique articles, try Table Tennis Tales & Techniques. If you are in the mood for inspirational fiction, The Spirit of Pong is also out - a fantasy story about an American who goes to China to learn the secrets of table tennis, trains with the spirits of past champions, and faces betrayal and great peril as he battles for glory but faces utter defeat. Read the First Two Chapters for free!

Staying Low Revisited

The Tip of the Week this past Monday was Staying Low. It was inspired by a student of mine, Sameer, 11, who tends to stand up straight when he plays. I've been on him about this for some time, and usually he gets lower - but only in practice drills if I constantly remind him. Once he plays points, he stands up again. At the Eastern Open this past weekend he won Under 800 and made the final of U950, but there were times where he didn't look so good since he was standing up so straight. (In newer ratings from before the tournament, he's rated 1181.)

So I told him that for the next month, our sessions are going to be very "boring," that we're going to focus almost exclusively on staying low. It's not just getting low, it's how you do it. When he does get low, his tendency is to simply bend his knees while leaning backwards from the waist, instead of forward. Also, his feet tend to be too close together, his feet pointing too much forward. You can't fix any one of these; they all go together. He also tends to either let his free arm tightly at his side, either hanging down or jammed up to his chest. Keeping the free hand out for balance is closely related to the ready position as you need it to stay balanced when you move.

So yesterday we started off by spending about ten minutes just shadow practicing with the proper stance. Once he looked comfortable doing this, we hit forehand to forehand at a very slow pace - it almost drove him crazy since he likes to play fast (like most kids), and every now and then in exasperation he'd smack one in. But we did this for twenty minutes, just forehand to forehand, adding some side-to-side footwork near the end. Then we did the same thing, backhand to backhand.

Then we played some points. The key was that he wasn't to play table tennis; he was to play "low table tennis," where he had to play the points in his newer stance. I expected problems, and kept the rallies simple - but lo and behold, he'd developed the habit during those excruciatingly slow rallies! Normally when I spot him 6 points I win over and over. This time he did something unthinkable - he won four out of five! Now I probably did miss a few shots, and was keeping things simple, but it was by far the best he's ever played. As a side bonus, by staying low he was able to see and react to my serve better than before, and returned them better than ever, even the "trick" serves I threw at him near the end of most games.

Table Tennista

Here are this week's headlines at Table Tennista:

China Open

Here's an ITTF story that features USA player Ariel Hsing - unfortunately, it features her upset loss. Here's the ITTF home page for the China Open, with results, articles, photos, and videos.

Behind the Scenes at the 2013 China Open

Here's a 38-second video with a few action shots and short interviews with Chinese players at the China Open. Interesting to watch, even more interesting if you understand Chinese, which I do not. Feel free to translate anyone!  

Three More Books Coming Out By Next Year

By the end of the year I'll have enough Tips of the Week to put them together in one volume, "Table Tennis Tips." (Highly original title - have a better suggestion?) It'll clearly be marked as a compilation of my previously published Tips of the Week. So far I've done 123 Tips of the Week here at TableTennisCoaching.com, one every Monday since Jan. 11, 2011. (Confession: a few didn't go up until Tuesday.) I anticipate doing 29 more this year, for a total of 152, plenty for a book. Sadly, I'm running out of topics, and so anticipate ending the Tips of the Week at the end of this year. (I also did 169 much shorter Tips of the Week, which were published near the back of Table Tennis Tales & Techniques - took up only 54 of the book's 272 pages. The Tips I do here are considerably longer, more like features than simple tips.)

Next year I'll also be publishing "More Pings and Pongs," the second anthology of my best published science fiction & fantasy stories. "Pings and Pongs: The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of Larry Hodges" came out in 2010 with my 30 best; I've now sold enough new stories for a new volume. The only problem is that typically when you sell a story, the buyer generally has sole rights to the story for six months, and so I anticipate I won't have rights to all the stories I'd like to use until April of 2014.

As a special, I've lowered the price for the Kindle version of Pings and Pongs to $2.99 - buy yours today!!! (I'd lower the price of the print version, but due to printing costs and other issues, the lowest I can sell it for is $8.35 - a bargain!!! It includes "Ping-Pong Ambition," a table tennis fantasy story.)

I have one other book also planned - "Table Tennis Fundamentals," the rewrite of "Table Tennis Steps to Success."

Here's my Amazon page that lists all my books, other than the USATT manual "Instructor's Guide to Table Tennis," which I plan to rewrite and have professionally published sometime in the future.

Non-Table Tennis - Orioles Top Ten List

Orioles Hangout published another of my infamous Top Ten Lists. This one was "Top Ten Ways the Orioles Can Get a TOR Starter." (For you non-baseball people, "TOR Starter" means "Top Of Rotation Starter," i.e. a pitching ace.) It's the eleventh article of mine they've published - nine "Top Ten" lists and two regular articles.

Non-Table Tennis - Sheeba

Yesterday I did 3.5 hours of coaching, and was pretty exhausted afterwards. I got home around 8:15PM, and let Sheeba, my dog, outside. She's 15 years old, which puts her in her eighties in human years. She's almost completely deaf, and half blind - almost completely blind without bright light - and has arthritic back legs so she hobbles around. When I went down around 8:30 PM the gate was open. One of the tenants downstairs had just left, and likely left it open, not realizing she was in the yard. Sheeba was nowhere to be seen.

I spent the next hour and 45 minutes circling the neighborhood and expanding outward, trying to find her. Calling for her was pointless since she's deaf, though I found it was a good way to indicate to people that I was searching for a lost dog. I kept asking around, and twice I found people who had seen her going by. Finally, at around 10:15 PM, I got a call from someone who had found her. I thanked her profusely, and walked the evil, naughty dog back home, where she demanded (and got) a bacon snack.

My legs are exhausted this morning, partly from 3.5 hours of coaching, but mostly from walking around for an hour and 45 minutes.

Table Table Tennis and Office Table Tennis

My legs are so tired from coaching and searching for Sheeba that for now on I'm going to play table tennis like this. Or perhaps like this.

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Fingerprinting and Afterschool Programs

Yesterday I was fingerprinted. Oh no!!! As I blogged about yesterday, it was for an afterschool table tennis program we'll be running at MDTTC this fall. Also fingerprinted were coaches Cheng Yinghua, Jack Huang, and John Hsu.

I went in expecting to have my fingertips inked. But that's a thing of the past. Instead, they had me put my fingertips on the surface of a scanner, one by one, with the fingerprint image appearing simultaneously on a large screen. It took about 90 seconds in all.

Afterschool programs are a great way to bring in new junior players, as well as a way to make use of a facility in the late afternoon, before the (hopefully) big player rush after 7PM or so. This would be especially important to full-time centers, but part-time clubs already have the tables (and storage area for them), and playing space, so perhaps they too can take advantage of this. (And we get paid! The kids pay a nominal fee for the program.)

How do you do it? Contact the local county school's recreation department. You'll need a coach or organizer. You can handle a lot of players with two coaches - one to coach a few at a time, one to watch over the rest as they play. Ideally, you'd have them doing drills for at least half the session, with the players rotated a few minutes at a time to work one-on one with one of the coaches, probably with multiball. Realistically, if you have a large number of kids and only two coaches, it'll be mostly free play except when they rotate in to work with the coach. The coach can actually work with two at a time, with one kid on the forehand side, the other on the backhand side, with the coach feeding side to side. Or he can work with even more, with the kids lining up and taking turns, perhaps four shots each, then back to the end of the line. (I prefer two at a time if there's a large turnout.)

I blogged a bit more about this on June 4, including the importance of starting with one session a week to concentrate the players in that session so as to get a good turnout. Once you have a good turnout, then you can expand to two days, and so on.

Crystal Wang Impressive at Hopes Week, Wins Tournament

USA's Crystal Wang is featured and pictured in the ITTF story about Hopes Week, where she won the afternoon tournament. Here's an excerpt:

The afternoon session featured the now traditional training tournament with the players starting from the score 8-8 and playing best of five games . . . among the girls Crystal Wang from Maryland in the United States proved most of the coaches who watched her play during the opening day right. Certainly she impressed Mikael Andersson.

"She not only won the training tournament, she basically cruised her way through the first real test in Schwechat," he said. "Great style, wonderful timing and technique was too much for the other young Hopes girls to handle this afternoon." Earlier this year, in April, Crystal Wang won the Hopes Girls’ Singles event at the ITTF-North America Cup in Westchester.

Video Interview with Zhang Jike and Timeouts

Yesterday I blogged about timeouts. As posted by Doug Harley in the comments section, here's a video interview (3:08) of Zhang Jike after winning his semifinal match in Men's Singles at the Worlds, 4-0 over Xu Xin. (He'd go on to win the final.) One minute in he's asked why he called a timeout leading 10-9 in the third. The translator spoke broken English, but corrected into somewhat proper English, he said, "This is a key set for me so if I can win 3-0 it'll be easier for me to play the next set, and secondly, I did not do well the last point when I was leading 10-8 so I called a timeout to reset myself."

How Useful is Shadow Play?

Here's a short article from Table Tennis Master: How Useful is Shadow Play?

The Speed of Table Tennis

Here's a video (3:04) featuring USA's Erica Wu that breaks down the speed of table tennis. (I think I remember seeing and posting perhaps an earlier version of this, but this one was only posted on Monday.)  

China Open

Here's the home page for the China Open, June 12-16, 2013, in Changchun, China. USA players Ariel Hsing, Lily Zhang, and Wu Yue are all entered in it. Hsing and Zhang are in Women's Singles, Doubles (teamed together), and Under 21 Women. Wu Yue is in Women's Singles and Doubles (with Shao Jien from Portugal).

2013 USATT Para National Team Training Camp

Here's Richard Xue's photo album - the first ten albums are all from the camp, which is going on right now in San Diego.

Lady Antebellum Ping Pong & Songs Finale

I blogged about this yesterday; here's a video (1:33). The two players on the right at the start are Homer and son Adam Brown; that's Michael Wetzel umpiring.

Four Year Old on TT Robot

Here's a video (2:34) of four and a half year old Jordan Fowler (grandson of Brian) smacking balls on his KingPong Robot.

California Governor Jerry Brown Brings Ping Pong to State Government

Table Tennis Nation brings you the story, with lots of links on this and related items.

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Timeouts

I've found it interesting how different coaches and players use timeouts. Far too many use it as a desperation measure, usually late in a match when a player has fallen way behind, and where it's unlikely to make a difference. Almost always it's done when a player is behind.

I'd argue that it should be used most often when a player is losing focus at a key time, where the timeout has the best chance of helping to win a game, whether it's in the first game, last game, or any in between. I think most would agree with this. Putting that aside, when should one call a timeout?

Let's suppose your player is serving up 9-7 in the fifth. I was once criticized for calling a timeout in that situation, with the argument that it lets the opponent talk to his coach and focus, and so maximize his chances of coming back. But I find that reasoning backwards. With my player is leading 9-7 in the fifth, if both players are focused and play smart, then my player is probably going to win. The most likely way my player loses is if he loses his focus and/or doesn't play smart - so by calling a timeout, I maximize the chances that my player will be focused and play smart, and therefore likely win. In other words, if you are leading, you are in control, and so worry less about the opponent and more about making sure you are prepared.

In other words, if you are behind by a score such as 7-9, and if you are focused and know what to do, the last thing you want is to give the opponent time to focus and think tactically. It's very easy for a player to lose focus when he is leading and about to win, and a timeout allows him to recover. (However, if you are behind 7-9 because you are losing focus or not sure what to do tactically, then you should call the timeout.)

Ironically, I sometimes hesitate to call a time-out near the end of a match when my player is leading because I know there's a good chance the other side will call one, so I get to save our timeout for later if needed.

Another mistake I think some make is waiting too long. It's better to call a timeout early in a match where it might lead to winning a game than to wait until later where it might not. At the Easterns I was coaching 11-year-old Sameer in his first major tournament. In one of his first matches he was serving and leading 10-8 in the first game, and lost the next point. On his own he called a timeout - he wanted to make absolutely sure he won that game, and wanted to ask what serve I thought he should use. (I said short backspin to the forehand, and the opponent put it in the net! Sameer won the match 3-1; if he'd lost that first game, it might have been 2-2. A very smart timeout that few would have done because it was still "too early" in the match.)

Here's the chart from my book Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers on when to call timeouts. Number two is the one that's way underused when players are leading in a close game - see the second part of that one.

When to Call a Time-out

  1. When losing focus before a key point. This is the most important time to call a time-out. A time-out is a good way to get your concentration back.
  2. To think about or discuss tactics at a key point. Generally do this when you are about to serve, since you have complete control over choosing your two serves. If you have a coach, he might be able to help choose two serves to use. Call it when you are receiving mostly if you have a good idea what the opponent will serve, and are debating how you should return that serve. Or call it to think or discuss any other tactical plans. It’s also valuable to call a time-out when you are winning a relatively close game (especially late in a match), such as at 10-8 or 9-7, so as to clear your mind, think tactically, and close out that game. This is often when the Chinese team calls time-outs.
  3. When falling behind in a key game. It’s useful to call a time-out if you lose the first game and are falling behind in the second (since you absolutely do not want to fall behind 0-2), or if you have already lost two games and will lose the match if you lose another. The key is not to wait until you are way behind; instead, call the time-out when you are still relatively close and can still find a way to come back. The time-out allows you to make sure you are focused and to rethink your tactics. It’s also a good way to give your opponent a chance to cool off if he’s playing well—there’s nothing wrong with calling a time-out in hopes of disturbing his concentration or throwing off his rhythm.
  4. Desperation tactic. Far too many players call time-outs as a desperation tactic near the end of a match when they are way behind and are pretty much out of it, but this rarely leads to a win. If you are losing badly, why wait until you are way down in the last game? It’s far better to call the time-out earlier in the hope of not being in this situation, where the time-out will rarely help.

Fingerprinting

We're starting up an afterschool table tennis program this fall with Montgomery County Schools. As noted in my blog last week, one of their requirements is anyone working with students gets a background check - and that means we have to get fingerprinted! So this morning I'm leaving about 8:30 AM to meet at a county office to be fingerprinted, along with fellow coaches Cheng Yinghua, Jack Huang, and John Hsu. I'm hoping to get pictures. If they look into my background they'll find I kill dozens of times every day. More on this tomorrow, though it might be simply a repeat of this note, saying "We've been fingerprinted."

Game Strategy

Here's an article from Table Tennis Master: Game Strategy

Non-Celluloid Balls

Here's a thread at the about.com table tennis forum where Jay Turberville reviews one of the new plastic balls (i.e. not celluloid).

The Fight to Save Table Tennis

Here's an article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal that features Marty Reisman and hardbat & sandpaper table tennis. There were quite a few errors in the article, however - here's a thread at the about.com table tennis forum where Jay Turberville lists nine mistakes, and Scott Gordon adds a few others.

Lady Antebellum’s Ping Pong Tournament Serves Up the Fun

Here's an article and pictures of the charity tournament. Here are more pictures.

Dog Spectator

Here's 49 seconds of a very jumpy dog spectator at table tennis.

***
Send us your own coaching news!

great analysis of timeout strategy, i agree completely.  here is a snippet from an interview with zhang jike following his 4-0 demolition of xu xin in the semifinals of last month's WTTC, where he is discussing taking his timeout in the 3rd game while leading 10-9, and his reasoning behind it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCQtO_c3ZS4&t=0m59s

spot on.

Good find - I'll probably mention it in my blog tomorrow for those who don't see your comment. 

Tip of the Week

Staying Low.

Eastern Open

It was a tiring weekend, but tournaments always are. I think coaching is more tiring than play. Seriously! Here are the results. We got there on Friday afternoon so our players could practice. I ended up volunteering with the NATT group running the tournament and spent some time putting together barriers. It was nostalgic - I was in charge of barriers at two U.S. Opens, two U.S. Nationals, and one North American Teams.

I mostly coached Derek Nie (12) and Sameer Shaikh (11). Sameer won Under 800 and made the final of Under 950, so it was a successful tournament for him. However, he needs serious work on staying low - hence the inspiration for this week's Tip of the Week (above). Often in practice with me he stays down, but once he gets into matches he tends to stand up straight, and his strokes and movement become awkward. We're going to focus on this for the foreseeable future.

Derek, rated 2215, had a strange tournament. On the one hand, he made it to the final of Under 2375, and had wins over players rated 2353 and 2332. He also went through stages where he was playing extremely well; his backhand play especially has improved as he can now do five types of backhand loops very well - over the table against short balls (especially serves), i.e. "banana flips"; off regular backspin; backhand rips against weak balls; in fast topspin rallies where he backhand loops the ball without backing up much, almost off the bounce; and from off table when forced to back up.

However, he had several matches where, at key stages, he seemed to tighten up and miss a few shots, especially finishing forehands. Astonishingly, he also kept missing his own serve, something he'd never done much before. Not fast and deep serves, but simple short serves that normally are almost never missed. He must have missed his own serve over 20 times this tournament - he has some work to do on this. In one five-game loss, after going up 2-1 in games, he missed his own serve four times in the last two games. (He also had a knee problem that affected him in some of his matches, especially toward the end; in his very first match he dived for a ball, and landed on it. Hopefully it's just a bone bruise. I don't think it affected him too much, but he's taking the next two days off to rest it.)

In the end, he lost five-game matches to three of his rival juniors, and another in four where he was down 1-2 but leading 10-8, with the opponent deucing it on a net-edge and winning on a net. (All four were actually rated higher, all in the 2260-2310 range.) Derek and I both agreed that while the actual results this time were somewhat disappointing, his actual play showed great promise. It'll take him time to gain the experience to incorporate his greatly improved backhand play with his already strong forehand play. And we had a lot of fun both to and from the tournament (four-hour drive) doing brain teasers and (I kid you not) discussing physics.

Here's a good place to thank fellow MDTTC players Raghu Nadmichettu and Harold Baring for their help in practicing with Derek throughout the tournament - and also to congratulate them for both making the quarterfinals of the Open. Chen Bo Wen, also from MDTTC and regular practice partner/coach for Derek, made the final of the Open.

I wish I could go into some of the tactics used in the tournament, but some give away too much for possible future opponents. Derek has a new-found "rivalry" with senior player Vladimir Shapiro (2332), who Derek beat in the Open but lost to in the U2375 final. In their first match, Vladimir was up 2-0, but with a major change in tactics Derek won the next three. In the U2375 final, Vladimir made a nice tactical adjustment to win at 7,8,9. "The future belongs to him," he told me, but the present belongs to him - with his two-winged looping game, varied serves, and smart tactical play, he swept three events - U2375, Over 40, and Over 50.

Because I was busy coaching, I didn't see many of the big matches. We left on Sunday as they were about to start the Open Quarterfinals.

We didn't stay at the tournament hotel, instead staying at a cheaper Day's Inn - and paid the price in other ways! I'm not picky about hotels, and didn't really mind it, but I did note a few things about the hotel:

  1. There was litter scattered all over - in the streets, walkways, outside rooms, and hallways.
  2. The coke machine just outside the front desk looked like it hadn't been cleaned in years. I could barely make out the flavors. It was situated so that to get at it I had to squeeze between a bush and an over-loaded trash can that smelled of old garbage. When I clicked on Lemon Ice Tea, I got a Ginger Ale. The front desk refunded my $1.50. They said that there had been complaints about this. I mentioned I'd try the lemonade, but they said that if I did, I'd probably get a coke instead. I ended up going for a water.
  3. The arm rests on the chair in our room were both broken and hanging off sideways.
  4. The light fixture between the beds was broken and hanging off the wall.
  5. The front door had some sort of paint splattered over it.
  6. There was trash scattered about the bathroom.
  7. While walking to the front desk to check out, in a walkway littered with trash, I stopped and watched a giant spider crawling about the wall. Spider webs were all over.
  8. The clock at the front desk was 12 minutes slow.
  9. The complimentary was only corn flakes or sugar frosted flakes, plain bagels, bread, sugar donuts, orange juice, and coffee. I didn't mind; I had two bagels.

In contrast to this, the playing conditions were excellent, with grippy wood floors and good lighting. It was rather humid, which gave some players problems. I'll never understand why so many players show up at tournaments without a towel to wipe their racket with. When it's humid, I bring two - one for me, one for the racket and ball.

Here was an "interesting" incident. A very loud argument was going on between a coach and the referee. Several spectators told me what had happened. In the fifth game of a close match a ball rolled into the court. One player raised his finger to signal let. As he was doing this, his opponent, a junior player, not seeing the raised finger (he was watching the ball) went for a shot and missed. The adult who had raised his finger for let claimed the point. The referee was called. Since the junior player didn't know that his opponent had called a let, the point stood, with his opponent getting the point. (I'm not sure if the adult denied calling a let or claimed that since the junior went for the shot the point counted.) The referee couldn't rely on spectators on what happened (or you might get a biased view), and you can't check the video (or everyone would have to video their matches just in case), and so he could only go by what the players said - and so probably made the right call. However, the adult, if did in fact call the let, pulled a fast one there - and he won the fifth game 11-9. Anyway, there was a LOUD interaction between the junior's coach and the referee, which led to the coach getting red-carded and kicked out.

I had another interesting experience. One of the juniors from my club was playing a match and seemed to be struggling. I wasn't coaching the match, but I asked his dad how he was doing, and discovered he was down 2-1 in games and down 5-1 in the fourth against a player rated considerably lower, whose game I knew. (Very strong backhand, very weak forehand, with specific tactics needed to adjust for this since the player was willing to play backhands from the forehand side.) So I called a time-out, explained how to play this player, and our junior went back out and won the game and match.

Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers

More reviews for the book are in. At Amazon.com, there are 17 so far - 15 five-star ones, and two four-star ones. They are selling pretty well at Amazon, both the print and Kindle versions. A few also sold at The Easterns. Hopefully we'll sell a bunch at the U.S. Open.

Butterfly App

Here's an app from Butterfly that allows you to watch the top players on your iPhone, iPod, or iPad. (Alas, my phone is circa 18th century, and it makes phone calls. Yes, just phone calls. Though I've heard rumors it takes pictures as well.)

Receive Secrets

Here's an article from Table Tennis Master: Service Receive Secrets From Japan.

Do You Know (the Ping Pong Song)

Here's a table tennis song I hadn't heard before - the music is to the beat of a bouncing ping-pong ball.

Michael Maze - Literally

Here's a cartoon from Mike Mezyan that combines Danish table tennis star Michael Maze, Michael Jackson, a maze, and a table tennis tour. (If you can't see it in Facebook, try this.)

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Easterns

At noon today I leave for the Eastern Open this weekend in Piscataway, NJ, coaching Derek Nie and Sameer Shaikh. As usual, I'll bring files of notes of players I've seen before, either live or on video. I'm going up with Derek and his mom. I've actually got some coaching this morning, not to mention my blog and dropping my dog (Sheeba) off at the dog boarding place, so it's going to be a hectic morning.

The complicating factor is I teach a junior class on weekends, on Saturdays 10:30AM-Noon and Sundays 4:30-6:00. Normally Raghu Nadmichettu assists, but he's playing in the Easterns. I have a substitute for Saturday, but not for Sunday. So either I or Raghu have to be back by Sunday at 4:30 for the class. What really complicates things is we don't know if Raghu or Derek will play on Sunday. They will if Raghu makes the quarters of the Open, or Derek the quarters of Under 2375. Sameer will finish on Saturday, so either Raghu or I have to go back with Sameer and his dad when they return that night or the following morning. On the other hand, if Raghu advances and can't go back, and Derek advances (and so has a big quarterfinal match in U2375), I might do some last-minute scrambling to get a substitute for the class so I can stay over to coach Derek.

Derek and I have an established way to pass the time on car trips to tournaments (with his parents driving) - brain teasers. I used to give them off the top of my head - I know hundreds - but I've run out after many trips. Last time I printed out a large number from online sites. Yesterday I stopped at the Library and picked up "The Colossal Book of Short Puzzles and Problems." Derek's gotten pretty good at them.

You can see the players in the Easterns by player's list or by event. Top seeds include Zhang Kai (2603), Yu Di (2600), Peter Li (2557, from my club before he went off to college), Eric Zhao (2543), Li Bochao (2500) and Chen Bo Wen (2494, from my club). For a 4-star tournament, it's not particularly strong, but there'll be some strong competition. Under 13 Boys is a powerhouse, with Jack Wang (2338), Gal Alguetti (2252), Derek Nie (2234), and Sharon Alguetti (2176). These ratings are actually old ratings, the ones used for qualification; at the tournament they'll have newer ratings for seeding. We have a large group coming from my area, with an even 20 players from Maryland, Virginia, and DC, almost all who play at MDTTC.

By the way, they will start setting up the playing hall Friday at 4PM, and finish by 7PM. I'm told that players can practice on any available table during that time.

Balance = Rapid-Fire Shots

I was working with an intermediate player today. I was giving him random multiball to his forehand side, and he had to smash every ball. He was struggling - every couple of shots he'd be off balance, and flailing away at the next shot. The problem was just that - balance. But if I only told him to stay balanced, he'd have continued to flail away - the key was to identify why he was going off balance. And that was pretty easy to see - every time he smashed, his whole body would move forward, throwing himself off balance, and then he'd have to move all his weight back to prepare for the next shot. This also threw off his timing.

I pointed out Chen Bowen, a 2500 player, who was looping against block on another table, and told my player to watch Bowen's head - it barely moved when he looped his forehand over and over. Instead, his body rotated rapidly around it, which created great power - and left him in nearly the same position and balanced, weight between his legs, immediately ready for the next shot. (You do this on both forehand loops and drives.) My player tried it out, and greatly improved his ability to play rapid-fire forehands over and over. It's okay for the head to move forward some on very powerful shots (drives or loops), or when rushed when stepping around the backhand corner, but it should be minimized if you want to be ready quickly for the next shot.

To illustrate the above, here are some short videos to study.

McAfee and the ITTF Coaching Program

Here's my article "Man on a Mission: Richard McAfee and the ITTF Coaching Program," published by the ITTF on its Facebook page. The article is also in the current (May/June) issue of USA Table Tennis Magazine.

North American Table Tennis Language Translator

I just noticed a new feature there. Here's the Eastern Open home page. Go to the top right, and see "Select Language." Then start clicking on different languages, and watch the text on the page change! Africaans! Albanian! Arabic! Traditional Chinese! Japanese! Macedonian! Yiddish! Etc. - I had great fun with this.

Ping Pong Prom Proposals

Here's an article and videos from Table Tennis Nation featuring, you guessed it, Ping-Pong Prom Proposals.

Circular Table Tennis?

I have no idea what to call this type of table tennis, so I'm going to call it Circular Table Tennis. Shouldn't they have people on both the inside and outside, rallying back and forth? (If you can't see it in Facebook, try this.)

***
Send us your own coaching news!

ICC and Fundraising for Table Tennis

ICC (India Community Center) has set the modern bar for raising money for table tennis in the U.S., raising $100,000 at a fund-raiser on June 2 in Milpitas, CA. Here's the article! "This annual event, which showcases the program’s homegrown talent to raise funds to nurture tomorrow’s champions, was attended by over 200 diehard table tennis players and fans. ICC’s junior players riveted the audience with their technique and passion during the talent exhibition. There were also celebrity challenge matches featuring former California State Controller and ICC Trustee Steve Westly, ICC Co-Founder and Trustee Anil Godhwani and 2012 Men’s & Women’s National Champions and 2012 Olympians Timothy Wang and Lily Zhang."

I'm no expert on fund-raising, but I have dabbled in it. I did get a $7000 sponsor for the 1993 Junior Nationals, which I ran in Maryland- that's $11,264 in 2013 dollars. The sponsor was Janlibo, a Chinese soft drink that was trying to expand into the U.S. market, starting in Maryland. Ironically, they wanted to increase their sponsorship the following year, but without checking with me or Janlibo, the USATT board of directors decided to recombine the Junior Nationals with the Junior Olympics, as it had been in previous years. They assumed Janlibo would go along with it, with the Junior Olympics moving to a different city each year. Janlibo had no interest in that - they were focusing on the Maryland/DC region at the time - and so the Junior National went from $7000 ($11,264!) in 1993 to $0 prize money thereafter. Alas.

There have been some titanic battles on the board over USATT fundraising. There was a period in the early/late 2000's where two board members had diametrically opposed ideas on how to do it. (I attended nearly every board meeting back in those days, and was a witness to all this.) One believed that we should hire a full-time fundraiser. The other believed we should hire a big-time fund-raising company. They had extremely sharp debates. The board was unanimous that we needed to do one or the other, but since they couldn't decide which to go with, they ended up doing . . . neither. Alas.

The last two times USATT had major sponsors that I know of were the late 1980s and early 1990s. The first was with Brother Corporation. USA Olympic table tennis players Diana and Lisa Gee helped bring that sponsor in with a Comdex exhibition, with USATT Program Director Bob Tretheway negotiating and closing the deal. (There was also a Ground Round Restaurant sponsorship that Bob brought in. And thanks to Sean O'Neill for aiding my fuzzy memory on some of this.) In the early 1990s, Dan Seemiller (and others - not sure who) brought in Dow Chemical as a big sponsor for the 1991-1992 U.S. Opens in Midland, MI. I believe both of these deals were over $100,000, and considerably more in modern dollars. I don't think USATT has had anything comparable since. I know recently-elected USATT board chair Mike Babuin is very interested in the fund-raising aspect - hopefully he'll break through on that. As to table tennis clubs, in addition to ICC I'm told that Lily Yip has also done well in local sponsorship for her club (and especially her tournaments) in New Jersey. 

At some point we probably should do one at MDTTC, my club. But as I noted above, I'm not an expert on fundraising. Alas.

Serve Practice

Here's my periodic note on this - have you practice your serves recently? Just get a bunch of balls, and practice! It's one of the most under-practiced aspect of the game, with more return on investment than just about any other aspect. How many times have you lost a match "because of his serves"? Well, become that guy "with the serves"! Don't have good serves; have great ones!!! You don't need to be a superstar player for this. Here's my article "Practicing Serves the Productive Way." In the Articles section here I have an even 20 articles on serving. But don't just read about it - study the top players, perhaps get a coach, and practice!

Kenta Matsudaira - Japan's Next Number One?

Here's the article from Table Tennis Master.

2013 National Junior Disability Championships

Here's their web page. They are July 6-13, 2013, in Rochester, MN. Sports include: Swimming, Track & Field, Table Tennis, Powerlifting, Archery & Pentathlon.

Incredible Pingpong Skills

Here's a trick-shot video that's pretty good (2:39). Anyone know who the player is? (I'm bad with faces, but it's not Jun Mizutani of Japan, as one commenter asked - he's a lefty.) The comments are almost as funny as the video.  

Waiting to Play

Here's what happens when there's a long line to play at your club. (If you can't see the Facebook picture, try this.)

Non-Table Tennis - Tenant Termination and Credit Ratings

On June 3 I had that short blog where I explained the problem I was having with my tenant downstairs. Last night we had it out. He has only paid $400 of the $1080 owed, and insists he explained in a "detailed note" two months ago why he hasn't been able to pay the rest. I don't think he thought I'd kept the note. As I showed him, the note actually says 1) he was having trouble getting an advance on money owed and so was having trouble paying the $500 he still owed on that month's rent, and 2) that while he had lost his full-time job, he wrote "My part-time job will now be full time." We argued for a long time over this - he claimed those words do not imply his part-time job ever became full-time, and kept quoting himself as saying, "My part-time job might be full time." I had to keep referring to where he wrote "now," but then he claimed that didn't change the meaning of the note, which of course is completely wrong. "My part-time job will now be full time" "My part time job might be full time."

He said the part-time job never became full-time, though he did get another full-time job shortly thereafter. As I pointed out, he not only never told me any of this, he told me last month (when the rent was also late) that he had extra income now and wouldn't be late on the rent again. Then I pointed out that none of this explains why he hadn't paid this month's rent (due May 28), or more importantly, why he had refused, despite multiple requests, to say when or if he'd pay. He insisted that the part where he wrote he hadn't been able to get the advance two months ago explained that. Again, it didn't make sense - that part of note explained why he hadn't been able to get an advance to pay the rest of the rent two months ago, but says nothing about this month's rent. He kept insisting this like it had just happened, when it was two months ago, and (as he admitted) he'd long ago received the money owed from back then. If this doesn’t make sense to you, it doesn't. I kept wondering if he was drunk or something since his arguments made no sense, but I don't think so.

I finally had to do something I've never done - I gave him one month's notice. I should have done this long ago as we've been having these spats over the rent over and over, with him rarely paying on time and refusing to ever let me know when or if it would be paid when it was late, and acting insulted when I asked. Ultimately he had to go because of his struggles to pay and his credit rating (which predicted he'd eventually burn me), but the reason I did it now was because of his insistence that it wasn't his responsibility to let me know when or if he'd be able to pay rent, and because of his incredible temper - he was screaming at me about how I was reading his note wrong, how I wasn't being fair, etc.

A year ago someone checked his credit rating for me, and it turned out to be incredibly low, something like the bottom 1%. (I forget the actual number.) Not checking his credit rating (and judiciary record for domestic violence and a few other things) before renting to him was a huge mistake that'll never happen again. (He was from the same high school I went to, three years ahead, though we'd never met.) I checked my credit rating yesterday - mine is 822 (from Equifax). I've never missed a payment, whether on my house, car, credit card, etc.

Anybody looking for a room or two floors to rent in Germantown, Maryland, about ten minutes from MDTTC? If so, contact me.

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Glasses

On June 4 I blogged about seeing an optometrist last week. Until recently I could read easily without glasses, but as I wrote on June 4, it's getting harder to focus on near items, and my right eye especially is getting worse. Yesterday I got the new reading glasses, and they work great. I don't need them at my computer, but now I can read books comfortably again. And there is nothing more important than that, right? Other than table tennis, of course.

I'm a bit nearsighted, so without glasses things in the distance get blurry. I discovered this on my first day in college back in 1980. I'd taken two years off after high school before starting college, and apparently my eyes had changed during that time. I sat in the front row, and could barely see what was on the blackboard - I spent the whole class squinting. Immediately afterwards I saw an optometrist, and within a couple of days I had glasses. Normally I only need them for classes, when driving, when watching TV or a movie. I take them off at home, and at most times when not doing something that requires seeing in the distance. They often are perpetually perched on top of my head, where they seem to balance well, ready to be brought down when needed.

I do wear them for table tennis. I simply can't see my opponent's contact with the ball otherwise, or see the ball clearly as it approaches. It means I don't see things as well close on my side - such as my own contact - but that's not quite as important as it would seem, as by the time you are contacting the ball you can't really react anyway. It doesn't seem to affect my serves, where the ball is traveling slower. I've tried progressive/graduated lenses, but the changeover in the lenses as the ball approaches was too much for me - it hurt my eyes and I'd lose track of the ball.

I tried contacts in the late 1980s, but they weren't for me. I never could get used to having something in my eyes, which kept drying up. Plus it's a hassle putting them in and taking them out. They'd put me in a permanent state of seeing things in the distance, but everything near would be blurry, which I don't like.

I wear croakies eyeglass holders (plain brown or black) to keep the glasses in place. Some or most people don't seem to need this, but if I don't, the glasses jump about for me. I have two pairs of distance glasses - my normal ones, and my playing ones with the croakies, which I keep in my playing bag.

I'm so used to wearing glasses when I play that when I feed multiball (which I do a lot), I'd feel uncomfortable without them. Why? Because I'm barely five feet from the player I'm coaching, with little time to react if he accidentally smacks me in the eye. So the glasses are now my eyeguards. I know Coach Jack Huang had serious eye problems for a time when someone hit him in the eye.

What are your eyewear experiences in table tennis?

Dentist

On May 21, I blogged about seeing a dentist. I'd been averaging one cavity every three years (one every six trips to the dentist), and hadn't changed my brushing or eating habits. I'd been seeing the same dentist for a decade, but she'd left, and I had a new one. Out of the blue the new one said I had 11 cavities, with seven of them needing immediate attention! Total bill would have been $2300.

Yesterday I saw a different dentist to get a second opinion. His verdict? I had zero cavities, though he said there was "one very slight gray area on the x-ray that we'd have to watch, and might be the beginning of a cavity."

Effective Training for Recreational Players

Here's the article from Table Tennis Master.

History of U.S. Table Tennis - 1984

USATT is once again serializing Tim Boggan's most recent book, "History of U.S. Table Tennis, Vol. XIII," which covers 1984. Here's Chapter One, with a new chapter going up each week. This is just the text version. If you want the full version (918 photos, 448 pages), go to Tim Boggan's history page, where you can buy any of the 13 volumes.

International News

As usual, check out the news headlines at the ITTF and at Table Tennista. Lots of stuff!

World Championships of Ping Pong (Sandpaper) and Hardbat

Here's the info page. This is the Sandpaper World Championships, which had $100,000 in prize money last year, and (I've heard) will have the same next year - Jan. 4-5, 2014, in London again. In addition to sandpaper, hardbat is pretty active in the UK - here's the European Hardbat Tour 2013 page, presented by the English Association of Table Tennis.

Inclusion: The Future of Table Tennis?

Here's the article and video (1:03), at Kickstarter (they are looking for funding). "INCLUSION combines Table Tennis and Racquetball to create a newly dynamic, fast-paced playing experience. The revolutionary side walls extend the playing surface and function as "bumpers" for novice players to help them enhance their skills.  Expert players similarly benefit from the added dimension which allows for a greater variety of angled shots and a more challenging, intensified gaming experience."

Table Tennis Rally Sculpture

Here's a sculpture that really shows a table tennis rally! (If you can't see it in Facebook, try this.)

***
Send us your own coaching news!

your question: "Inclusion: The Future of Table Tennis?"

my answer: oh jeezus, i hope not!  that is some lameass gym class stuff right there.  i would hazard to say its of interest only to ping pong players (e.g., people who don't even know how to properly grip the bat).

 

that sculpture is SO SWEET!  looks like the rally doesn't have an end though...i see the serve (i think) in the far forehand corner, but not the winning/losing shot.

Tip of the Week

Five Steps to a Great Spin Serve.

Meeting with Montgomery County School Officials

Yesterday MDTTC officer Wen Hsu and I met with officials from Montgomery County Schools about creating an afterschool table tennis program. The program would start this fall, on Thursdays. If there is a good turnout, then we'd expand to other days.

One interesting item of agreement came up. Many times when clubs look to do such programs they are very ambitious, and look to have such a program every day, or at least multiple times each week. It sounds great, and there's nothing wrong with aiming toward this - that's where the ambition should lead. The problem is that very often all this does is spread a limited number of players at the start over multiple days, and so instead of getting a good turnout once a week, you get a very weak turnout multiple times each week. When the kids come in and see there aren't many others, they lose interest.

When we were first discussing this program, the original idea was to do it multiple times each week. I argued for once a week at the start so we could get as many kids at once to start. (Obviously you have to take your club's size into account; we have 16 tables normally set up and can go to 18.) When we discussed with the school officials how many times per week we should do it, I said once a week to start, and expand later when we have the numbers. They were openly relived - turns out they regularly have this problem with groups wanting to expand too quickly rather than focus on getting a good turnout once a week, and had sort of a "canned lecture" on the importance of this - which was roughly what I said above. Anyway, we agreed on Thursdays, and will expand if we get the numbers.

I'm going to be the primary coach for the sessions, but depending on turnout, I'll have others helping out. I'll always have at least one assistant. During a typical session I'd take a few at a time to work with, doing multiball and using a robot, while another coach (or coaches) oversee the others hitting among themselves. Then the players would rotate between the two groups until I've worked with all of them.

We want all our coaches to be ready to work on this program. One of the requirements for working with kids in Montgomery County Schools is a background check - and so they require all coaches to get fingerprinted! I've never had this done. Next Tuesday all the coaches (nine of us - Cheng, Jack, Leon, Bowen, James, Brian, Raghu, John, and myself) are going to the police station at 10AM to get fingerprinted. I hope to take pictures.

Eye Exam

I had an eye exam last week. My distance vision hasn't changed, but I'm having more and more trouble reading. Normally I read without glasses, but more and more I can't focus on things close up without eye strain. I actually have reading glasses, but I normally don't really need them - my left eye, until recently was pretty much fine for reading, and the right eye only slightly blurry. But now I've ordered stronger reading glasses, which should come in this week. It'll be a sad moment when I make the transition to reading with glasses all the time - but now I'll be able to read again without constant eyestrain or having to hold the book at arm's length to focus. I wear distance glasses when I play or coach table tennis, so in theory I can't see the ball close up - but after experimenting, I've found clearly seeing the opponent (and his racket's contact with the ball) is more important than seeing close-up, since you can't really react to something at that point anyway. In theory, perhaps bifocals would be best, and I've tried that, but in practice there's that transition between the lenses that I could never get used to. 

Serve With No Spin and Beat Timo Boll

Here's the article from Table Tennis Master.

Meiklejohn North American Senior Championships

Here are the results.They were held this past weekend, May 30 - June 2.

Crystal Wang on NBC Featured by USATT

The video of 11-year-old Crystal Wang on NBC on April 24 is now featured on the USATT web page.

Oceanic Festival of Table Tennis

Here's the info page. "The first ever Oceanic Festival of Table Tennis is taking place across Viti Levu, the main island of Fiji. From Monday 17th June to Saturday 22nd June, American Kim Gilbert, and Fijian Steve Reilly will be taking Table Tennis across the island!"

MySpace Executive Brings Ping-Pong to Revived Company

Here's the article (and links) from Table Tennis Nation.

Ping-Pong and Songs

Here's the article. "Join Charles, Hillary and Dave at their inaugural Ping Pong & Songs with all proceeds benefitting LadyAID™. Be a part of it and get your game face on!" Event takes place on June 6, this Thursday.

Superman Table Tennis

Here's the Facebook picture - based on the way he's holding the paddle he needs some serious coaching. (If you can't see it on Facebook, try this.)

Non-Table Tennis - "Tyler's Ten" Online

My new science fiction story "Tyler's Ten" is now online at New Myths Magazine! When Vice President John Tyler takes the oath of office as president after the death of President William Henry Harrison in 1841, an alien vacationer takes over his body and sends his consciousness into a virtual reality world inside a computer - along with the other first ten presidents - Washington, J. Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, J-Q Adams, Jackson, Van Buren, and W.H. Harrison! Turns out the first ten presidencies were all run by aliens on vacation, with the aliens taking over as they took the oath of office. What can Tyler do to save them? Features lots of presidential bickering (especially Jackson and J-Q Adams), an alien courtroom battle, and ends on modern earth. (Here's my science fiction & fantasy page.)

***
Send us your own coaching news!

is that a modified seemiller grip superman is using there?

In reply to by douglas.harley

It is sort of a Seemiller grip. I've coached beginners who held the racket that way. If I were coaching Superman, the first thing I'd say is, "Superman, you're supposed to be pretty smart, so if you're going to hold the racket that way, shouldn't you have the handle pointed up, so the table doesn't get in the way?" Then I'd explain the difference between the Seemiller and Shakehands grips, and see which he'd prefer, while suggesting shakehands. 

In reply to by Larry Hodges

you don't think superman could handle the penhold style, is that why you wouldn't even suggest it to him???  lol, i bet spiderman would be a great penhold player!  he'd probably rock a devestating RPB, and have lightning-fast footwork.  he'd be like xu xin in a red suit.  wait a sec...i have never seen spiderman and xu xin in the same room together...maybe xu xin is spiderman?!?!?!  enlightened

#$%^%$#(*&^%&!!!!!

This morning I have a meeting at 10AM with Montgomery County school officials about a potential afterschool table tennis program. I was going to get up early to do the Tip of the Week and my blog. However, after a major run-in with the tenant downstairs, I was pretty much up all night, too irritated to sleep, and woke up this morning with a major headache.

I own a three-floor townhouse, and live on the third floor, renting out the first two floors. The 56-year-old person I rent to (who has a full-time job) believes that if he can't pay the rent I shouldn't question it. After much hassling, I was able yesterday to get $400 of the $1080 that was due a week ago, but with no promise on when or if he'd pay the rest, and he seems to think I should be happy that he paid that much. He believes that if he doesn't pay the rent on time, that I should assume he can't pay and I shouldn't ask for it. He's been late month after month, only paying after I hassle him for it, which he says is "condescending." As I belatedly discovered, he's got a credit rating about as low as is mathematically possible (quick pat on the head to myself: I have essentially a perfect credit rating. Yay me!), is a slob (I should take pictures), and keeps me up late at night with regular screaming fights with his 24-year-old son, who also lives downstairs. Recently they got so loud the neighbors called the police at 2:30 AM on a weeknight. I plan to give him one-month's notice soon.

So no blog today or Tip today; I'll restart tomorrow. 

ugh, sorry to hear about your tenant problems larry.  i also own a townhouse rental, in fairfax county virginia (although my family and i do not live there).  and have had very good luck with tenants, who we find on craigslist...but you gotta ALWAYS do a background check!  we use #1 background checks, as i have found them to offer the best services at the lowest price.  it costs like $40 to do a complete criminal/credit/rental background check, and they email you the results in less than 24 hours.  i just make prospective tenants pay a $50 application fee, and that covers the cost of the check, as well as my time for getting/processing all the info.  i have had perfectly normal-looking/sounding people who have terrible credit ratings, evictions, and dangerous criminal histories, so you cannot trust your "instincts".

hope all these problems get resolved, and you can get back to enjoying table tennis and writing...  :)

Hi Doug, yes, I'm slapping myself silly for not doing a background check. I've had very good luck with all past tenants, and the new tenant turned out to have gone to the same high school I went to, three years ahead of me - we knew the same teachers, the pricipal, etc., and so I rented to him on the spot. It's only recently that I did the background check, and discovered his credit rating, as well as a series of other "interactions" he and his son have had in civil and criminal courts. Thanks for supplying the link to #1 background checks - I might use them. (Hopefully it wasn't noticeable, but during last night's junior session I was pretty much on edge over all this, but trying not to let it show.) 

In reply to by Larry Hodges

lol, if someone went to my high school around the same time i did, i would automatically distrust that person!  ;)

nah, didn't notice anything in juniors training yesterday...you were cool as a cucumber.

Good Misses, Bad Misses

In a session with an advanced beginner yesterday, while hitting forehand to forehand (we're both righties), I pointed out to him the difference between a "good miss" and a "bad miss." Ideally, there would be no misses, but some are better than others.

When his shot went long, that was a "good miss" since at least he was driving into the ball, usually with some topspin, and he only needed to adjust his racket angle and perhaps not lift so much. When his shot went into the net, it was a "bad miss" because it usually meant he was taking the ball too quick and hitting it straight on into the net, rather than with any type of topspin. The same was true later on when I had him loop against backspin (multiball) - spinny loops off the end - good. Loops into the net - bad.

When his shot went wide (to my right), it was a "good miss" because, again, he was driving into the ball, and only needed to adjust his timing. If his shot went toward the middle of the table but actually hit the table, that was still a "bad miss" because it meant he was probably turning his wrist in and letting his racket tip fall back, i.e. it was a technique problem, not just a timing issue.

Another "good miss" is a missed serve that has lots of spin. When I play practice matches with juniors, I often claim "I wasn't ready!" if they miss a serve. I want them to push the envelope and go for great, spinny serves rather than wimp out and go for safe ones. If they serve high I'll return it passively, but mention they need to practice keeping it lower. (Key to that is a low contact point with a fine grazing motion.) A "bad miss" is any serve that misses - or hits! - that's not otherwise a good serve, i.e. spinny. (Not all serves have to be spinny, but I'm talking about players learning to serve with spin, not advanced players learning to serve no-spin that looks spinny, i.e. "heavy no-spin.")

Best Shots of My Life

Here are the best shots I've ever made in my life in a tournament, in rough order:

  1. The dive under the table.
    This was against Marty Reisman in a hardbat challenge match in the late 1990s (so not really a tournament match), but it was at a tournament, so I count it. I was out of position and he hit wide to my backhand. I lunged over and chopped it back short to his wide backhand. He did a short drop shot to my forehand that went off the side. We were playing on a table where the table legs were near the end, and there was no obstruction underneath. So I dived under the table, in front of the table leg on my forehand side, and managed to scoop the ball back up onto the table. Marty pushed it back for a winner, though I didn't see it - was I was sprawled on the ground.
  2. Forehand Counter-Smash From Two Tables Away While Knocking Over Eric Boggan.
    I was on table three playing Dave Sakai in 1983. U.S. Men's Champion Eric Boggan was on table one. I was back lobbing against Dave, and lobbed one high and wide to his backhand. I knew that Dave had this inside-out forehand smash he'd do on such shots, so as he was about to smash I ran way around my backhand to forehand counter-smash. Dave smashed it inside out with sidespin so it broke way over, all the way into court one. I ran after it, and ran right into Eric Boggan, knocking him off his feet - but I made the forehand counter-smash! Dave blocked it back for a winner, alas. Eric was not happy with me.
  3. The counterloop against Allen Barth.
    He's a lefty, and he looped to my backhand in a tournament match in the early 1980s. I started to block, but the ball hit the net. I readjusted, but the ball hit the side edge and jumped to my left. I dived after it, and did a mid-air backhand counterloop around the net that just rolled on his side of the table for a winner. I landed on the floor on my stomach.
  4. The underhanded counter-smash.
    This was against a much weaker player in the late 1980s. I was back lobbing, and the guy just creamed one to my forehand. I backed way, way back, and lobbed it back. He smashed again to my forehand, but not as hard. For some reason, spur of the moment, I did an under-handed counter-smash, bowling style. (I think I'd seen Jan-Ove Waldner do this shot, so perhaps I was subconsciously copying it.) It went in for a clean winner.
  5. Backspin Chop Lob Ace.
    This was against Sunny Li, the U.S. Under 10 and 12 Champion in the early 1990s, and already rated something like 1900 or so. (He would go on to win just about every junior event up to Under 18 before going off to Iraq as a sharpshooter.) I was up match point, something like 20-15. Sunny served short backspin to my backhand. I chop lobbed it into the air so it landed very short on his forehand side and bounced back to my side for a match-winning ace. (I've also done backspin serves that bounce back to my side of the table, usually against in less serious matches, but those aren't great shots - I can do that serve 2/3 of the time.)

Kagin Lee Blog on the College Championships

Here's the blog that went up this morning, "The Making of the College Table Tennis Championships, 2013 Edition." (Kagin is on the USATT Board of Directors.)

ITTF Development and Education Programs

Here's a report on the ITTF's plans on this for the next four years.

Table Tennista

Here are this morning's headlines at Table Tennista.

Ping Pong Hustler

Here's a short film (15:03) made in 2006 featuring the late great Marty Reisman.

Table Tennis Movie Posters

I did a Google search for "Table Tennis Movie Posters," and this is what I found. Lots of great pictures!

Scripps National Spelling Bee

Table Tennis Nation did this preview of the spelling bee - turns out a number of the contestants are table tennis players! Alas, the final winner wasn't one of the table tennis players, even though three of the four finalists were.

River Table Tennis

Here's a video (39 sec) of table tennis played on a floating mini-table in a river! Added bonus - you get to see player fall into river.

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Hey Larry,

Loved your "Best Shots".  Great descriptions.  I could see them all in my head.  I can even imagine Eric's reaction.  I wouldn't have believed some of them, but I don't think you could make up anything that good :)

My best shots were not so interesting.  I can remember playing against a local DJ at a fundraiser event in a mall, late 70's.  I was about 14.  You paid a dollar to play against the DJ.  Lots of people were watching.  Match point I did the "backspin over-and-back" serve.  It was a nice coupe de grace.  After that people started requesting to play me for a dollar.

John